Ontario reports more than 500 new COVID-19 cases, 17 more deaths

Ontario is reporting 531 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, up from the previous day of 485. The provincial case total now stands at 557,451.

Of the 531 new cases recorded, the data showed 382 were unvaccinated people, 46 were partially vaccinated people, 75 were full vaccinated people and 28 were unknown.

According to Thursday’s report, 116 cases were recorded in Toronto, 63 in Peel Region, 62 in York Region, 46 in Hamilton, 43 in Windsor-Essex.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 40 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,448 as 17 deaths were recorded. However, 15 deaths occurred more than two months ago and was included in today’s report due to a data system cleanup, the ministry of health said.

As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, 45,545 vaccines (16,610 for a first shot and 28,935 for a second shot) were administered in the last day.

There are more than 9.6 million people fully immunized with two doses which is 74.2 per cent of the eligible (12+) population. First dose coverage stands at 81.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, 543,760 Ontario residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19, which is about 98 per cent of known cases. Resolved cases increased by 338 from the previous day.

Active cases in Ontario now stand at 4,243 — up from the previous day when it was at 4,067, and is up from Aug. 12 when it was at 2,868. At the peak of the second wave coronavirus surge in January, active cases hit just above 30,000. In the third wave in April, active cases topped 43,000.

The seven-day average has now reached 498 which is up from yesterday at 496, and is up from last week when it was 375. A month ago, the seven-day average was around 150.

The government said 26,213 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. There is currently a backlog of 13,142 tests awaiting results.

Test positivity for Thursday hit 2.4 per cent. Last week, test positivity was at 2.1 per cent.

Ontario reported 176 people in general hospital wards with COVID-19 (up by two from the previous day). No recent ICU data was available due to a “technical issue” for the last two days. On Tuesday, the province said there were 127 patients in ICUs with 98 patients on ventilators.

Provincial officials recently announced they would start including the vaccination status of those hospitalized due to COVID-19 as part of their daily COVID-19 data reporting.

They noted the new dataset will grow and improve over time as more information is collected.

The most recent data showed for those in general hospital wards with COVID, 75 were unvaccinated, 8 were partially vaccinated and 13 were fully vaccinated. For those in ICUs, 6 were fully vaccinated while 52 were unvaccinated and 6 were partially vaccinated.

Variants of concern in Ontario

Officials have listed breakdown data for the new VOCs (variants of concern) detected so far in the province which consist of the B.1.1.7 (now named by WHO as “Alpha” and was first detected in the United Kingdom), B.1.351 (now named by WHO as “Beta” and was first detected in South Africa), P.1 (now named by WHO as “Gamma” and was first detected in Brazil), and B.1.617.2 (now named by WHO as “Delta” and was first detected in India).

“Alpha” the B.1.1.7 VOC: 145,705 variant cases, which no new data for case increases was available since the previous day due to system upgrades, ministry of health said.

“Beta” the B.1.351 VOC: 1,496 variant cases, which no new data for case increases was available since the previous day due to system upgrades, ministry of health said.

“Gamma” the P.1 VOC: 5,206 variant cases, which no new data for case increases was available since the previous day due to system upgrades, ministry of health said.

“Delta” B.1.617.2 VOC: 6,656 variant cases, which no new data for case increases was available since the previous day due to system upgrades, ministry of health said.

NOTE: It takes several days for positive COVID-19 tests to be re-examined for the exact variant. Therefore, there may be more variant cases than overall cases in daily reporting.

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Here is a breakdown of the total cases in Ontario by gender and age:

• 277,922 people are male — an increase of 270 cases.
• 275,828 people are female — an increase of 254 cases.
• 14,991 people are under the age of 4 — an increase of 24 cases.
• 26,369 people are 5 to 11 — an increase of 47 cases.
• 49,371 people are 12 to 19 — an increase of 53 cases.
• 209,618 people are 20 to 39 — an increase of 261 cases.
• 158,229 people are 40 to 59 — an increase of 106 cases.
• 73,472 people are 60 to 79 — an increase of 33 cases.
• 25,303 people are 80 and over — an increase of 5 cases.
• The province notes that not all cases have a reported age or gender.

Here is a breakdown of the total deaths related to COVID-19 by age:

• Deaths reported in ages 19 and under: 5
• Deaths reported in ages 20 to 39: 90
• Deaths reported in ages 40 to 59: 616
• Deaths reported in ages 60 to 79: 3,052
• Deaths reported in ages 80 and older: 5,684
• The province notes there may be a reporting delay for deaths and data

Cases, deaths and outbreaks in Ontario long-term care homes

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,793 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is unchanged since yesterday. Thirteen virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 3 current outbreaks in homes, which is an increase of one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 1 active case among long-term care residents and 10 active cases among staff — unchanged, and up by five, respectively, in the last day.